Sunday at the Ring

25. July 2010Nürburgring - For many of the 202,000 visitors it was a very long night – with the concert and the fireworks in the Müllenbachschleife, and therefore they didn’t notice that there was a dense cloud cover and rather low temperatures in the early morning. But when the RaceTrucks lined up for the second timed practice, the sun finally broke through the clouds. And again Chris Levett (GBR) in his blue MAN amazed his opponents, because in the timed practice he was more than 6 tenths faster than Markus Oestreich (GER) in his MKR Renault who clocked second fastest time. After only three fast laps the other top pilots were quite certain that they had already qualified for the SuperPole, but Buggyra pilot Uwe Nittel (GER) in his Freightliner held on over the full 15 minutes and lived up to his reputation as highflyer of the season. And in the very last lap he posted 7 fastest time. Unfortunately for Hendrik Vieth, the rising star of the weekend, his fastest lap was not good enough to qualify for SuperPole. He missed out on 10th position by just over 1 second.
In the SuperPole everybody took the gloves off and drove flat out. Right at the beginning Oestreich clocked 1m 55.889s, but 2 minutes later MAN pilot Antonio Albacete (ESP) was 2 tenths faster. Levett secured 3rd place ahead of Markus Bösiger (SUI) in his MKR Renault. The first 4 pilots were only within 6 tenths of each other. Jochen Hahn (MAN) was placed in 5th position, and the starting slot alongside the German was occupied by the Czech title holder David Vrsecky (Buggyra). Nittel was again in 7th, and behind him were the Russian Alex Lvov (MAN), the two Renault pilots Anthony Janiec (FRA) and Javier Mariezcurrena (MAN) from Spain.
In the Championship race Albacete used his pole position starting slot to good effect and took the lead ahead of Oestreich and Levett. Hahn outgunned Bösiger, and behind Bösiger were Lvov and Janiec. There was some skirmish involving Vrsecky and Nittel – the German even had to plough through the grass – and they dropped back to 8th and 9th position, respectively. The Czech was soon back in 6th while Nittel was stuck behind Mariezcurrena in 9th place. The leading sextet was only separated by seconds, but only Hahn and Bösiger got in each others’ way several times. However, the MAN pilot resisted all attempts by the Swiss to overtake. Behind Vrsecky, Lvov and Janiec crossed the finishing line in 7th and 8th, respectively.
There was an exciting battle between Vieth and guest pilot Mika Mäkinen (FIN). But eventually the Finn in the second Hahn Racing MAN benefitted from his 14 years of truck racing experience and got ahead, and in the final lap the German was also passed by the Hungarian Zoltan Birnbauer (MAN).
After the race Nittel experienced a nasty surprise. During his in-fight with Janiec for 8th place, the German collided with the French Renault – a push that was hefty enough to send the Renault through the short NGK chicane. There was no change in the order of the positions, but Nittel was disqualified.
As is well known, in the second race the 8 top finishers from race 1 start in reverse order: Janiec was on pole with Lvov alongside him, Oestreich lined up besides Albacete on the 4th row. Oestreich made a good getaway to slot into 3rd position, while Hahn’s truck made contact which sent him spinning and dropped him way down the field.
Lvov was under enormous pressure from his chasers. After only a few laps he could no longer fend them off, and one after another of his rivals passed the Russian – at first Oestreich, and later Vrsecky, Bösiger, Albacete and Levett. The Swiss was constantly attacking his former Buggyra team mate, but was unable to find a way past. Oestreich took the lead unchallenged, and as Janiec defended his position tooth and nail against his chasers, Oese was able to extend his lead even further. When Janiec was no longer able to hold his position, Albacete took advantage of the confusion to overtake Bösiger. Driving almost nose to tail throughout, the chasing quartet tried to reel in Oestreich, but the MKR Renault was meanwhile too far ahead. The runner-up position was fiercely contested until the end of the race, and eventually Vrsecky, Albacete, Bösiger and Levett crossed the finishing line within a mere 2 seconds of each other. Lagging a bit behind, Janiec finished in 6th. Nittel succeeded in working his way up from the back of the grid and came home 7th, and Hahn, too, had managed to move up to 8th position after his spin. The last two drivers finishing within the points were the MAN pilots Adam Lacko (CZE) and Mariezcurrena.
Afterwards Bösiger collected a 10 second time penalty for overspeeding, dropping him to 6th position and promoting Levett and Janiec to 4th and 5th, respectively.
In the championship ranking Albacete extended his lead and has now a total of 184 points, followed by Bösiger (153), Hahn (142), Vrsecky (112), and Oestreich (94)
In the team ranking the first race was won by Truck Sport Bernau (Albacete / Levett) followed by MKR Technology (Bösiger / Oestreich) and Team Hahn Oxxo Racing (Hahn / Birnbauer). The winner of the second race was MKR Technology ahead of Truck Sport Bernau and Team HahnOxxo Racing.
The final race of the day was the second Mittelrhein Cup race which also counts towards the British Championship. That’s why some pilots from the British Isles entered the race rather boldly; to the disadvantage of Stuart Oliver (MAN). A first lap collision sent him into a spin and he lost a lot of places. Pole setter Levett, who competes in both the FIA and the Mittelrhein event, made a good getaway and took a lead he was never to lose. The fans at the Ring were of course looking forward to watching the battle between their 3 German heroes Gerd Körber (Iveco), Hans-Joachim Stuck (MAN) and Heinz-Werner Lenz (Mercedes-Benz). Körber was definitely the fastest driver of the trio. Stuck was able to keep up with Körber to a certain degree, but Lenz was forced to retire in mid-race. Oliver did a fantastic job – he made a great charge through the pack from the back of the field and eventually brought his MAN home in 3rd. Later in the day the Englishman was awarded the title ‘Truck Master Germany’. At that time the Iveco Team around Schorsch Glöckner were already beside themselves. Over and over they cheered their hero Gerd ‘Mr Truck Racing’ Körber. It took them only a few months to construct the race truck; the project was privately financed and supported by a few sponsors. The team’s aim was a ranking in the top ten, but now they rejoiced over two podium places.
Prior to this, Stuck and Körber caused a furor in their duel against DTM pilot Timo Scheider. But in the end Körber with his 800 hp VW ‘Bulli’ and Stuck with his 1,110 hp MAN RaceTruck had to acknowledge defeat – the ABT Audi was clearly superior.